Pakistani child gets Indian eye

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A one-year-old Pakistani boy saw the world for the first time yesterday through an eye donated by an Indian.

Mohammed Ahmed gained partial vision after a difficult operation at the Agarwal Eye Institute in the southern city of Madras where another Pakistani child got a donor's eye six months ago.

Doctors said Ahmed, who was born blind, would get near-normal sight by the time he heads back to Karachi next week.

"It was a complicated surgery since both his cornea [the transparent circular part of the front of the eyeball] had become white and the iris [the flat coloured membrane behind it] was stuck to the cornea," said Dr Amar Agarwal, who performed the surgery.

"We had to proceed very carefully, first to detach the iris and thereafter replace the defective cornea with a healthy one procured from a 50-year-old Madras donor two weeks back," Dr Agarwal told reporters.

"Now the Karachi kid can see the world through Indian eyes."

Sitting next to the doctor and oblivious of the media attention he was getting, Ahmed reached out to a ball placed on a table in front of him.

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"We never imagined he will get his eyesight," said his mother Mehmooda Salim. "It's the will of Allah. We are thrilled."

Ahmed's father, Mohammed Salim, said that after he contacted the clinic and talked to Dr Agarwal it was easy to get the visa and get to Madras.

"We have a lot of faith in India. We are overwhelmed by the warmth of the people here. There are many patients back in Pakistan and they could now seek a cure from Indian specialists," he said.

Last year, a life-saving heart surgery was performed on two-year-old Pakistani girl Noor Fathima at a hospital in Bangalore, also in southern India. Since then a steady stream of Pakistani children has flocked to India seeking treatment for variety of ailments.